A-Z of the Sunday newspapers

THIS Is Money reads the Sunday papers so you don't have to. Here is this week's run-down of who is making the headlines on the City pages:

The Business

BAE
BAE Systems, the UK's biggest defence company, is facing a boardroom showdown this week over its shipbuilding strategy that could trigger a shake-up of top management.

Trade barriers
Britain's membership of the EU customs union is costing the economy more than £35bn a year, according to new research. The loss is caused by the Common Agricultural Policy and artificially high prices for imported manufactured goods caused by non-tariff barriers.

Ryanair
The number of Ryanair pilots joining the union Balpa and its Irish equivalent Ialpa has surged in recent months as the relationship between pilots and the airline's management grows increasingly strained.

BBC Worldwide
The BBC is taking informal advice from investment bank NM Rothschild on the possible sale of its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, as interest steps up in the broadcaster's divers media assets.

Independent on Sunday

HSBC, Santander
Banco Santander Central Hispano, which is bidding for Abbey National, and HSBC, the UK's largest bank, have been slammed for lax money-laundering procedures in a report by a US Senate subcommittee.

Halliburton
Halliburton, the firm formerly run by the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, will be invited this week to bid for a contract to sort out one of the British Government's most troubled defence projects.

InterContinental
Investors in InterContinental Hotels Group are on course to receive a bumper payout that could reach up to £1bn.

The Observer

ITV
A senior ITV director is to quit the board after less than a year in the job. More resignations are expected as new chairman Sir Peter Burt stamps his authority on the television company formed via the merger of Granada and Carlton earlier this year.

Cazenove
Citigroup, the US banking colossus, is ready to join the bidding war for Cazenove, one of the few remaining independent British stockbrokers to have escaped an overseas bid since the City was deregulated in 1986.

Gas bills
British Gas is encouraging ordinary households to behave like hedge funds and fix the price they will pay for electricity and gas two-and-a-half years ahead.

Sunday Telegraph

Whitbread-Marriott
Whitbread, the leisure group, is considering a £1bn sale of Marriott hotels as part of a review of the business launched by Alan Parker, the new chief executive.

ITV
ITV is set to announce plans to increase annual cost savings by a further 20% to £120m, the second time that ITV has increased its target for cutting costs since it was formed.

Wentworth
A furious row has broken out among the shareholders in Wentworth, one of the world's best known golf clubs, over plans to sell it. The dispute has pitched Elliott Bernerd - the property tycoon who recently took his company, Chelsfield, private - against Eddy Shah, the former regional newspaper mogul.

Big Four
Senior partners from the big four accountancy firms will tomorrow warn Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of state for trade and industry, that unless the Government agrees to limit auditors' liability, they will refuse to audit big banks and insurers.

Sunday Times

Regan
Andrew Regan, the entrepreneur best known for a controversial £1.4bn bid for the Co-op, is to return to the stock market. Regan will announce this week that he has paid £6m for a 29% stake in Corvus Capital.

Armageddon August
Britain's retailers suffered 'armageddon August' according to industry reports, hit by the impact of poor weather and the Bank of England‘s five interest rate rises.

Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young, the former auditor of Equitable Life, faces a devastating attack on its reputation this week as the profession's own disciplinary body publishes its report into the firm's audit of the insurer.

DFS
Lord Kirkham, the DFS chairman, has been encouraged by indications that an influential rebel investor may have decided to throw its weight behind his improved £507m takeover offer.